Miguel Cotto: Has Pacquiao Met His Match?

by mason_beer on Sep 26, 2009 11:24 AM EDT Comment 3 comments

I'm relatively new to the boxing game and I've spent some time to go back at watch some of Miguel Cotto's fights, specifically his fights with Mosley and Margarito, one win and one loss. This will be the first welterweight that Pacquiao will fight that is a true welterweight and a prove 140+ pounder. In both fights, Cotto was a stalker who jabs his way in (unlike Hatton) and has the stamina to push a serious pace throughout the fight (unlike Oscar). Cotto is heavy handed but ha great speed. He's got the combination of power, speed, and precision. Pacquiao is a great fight, but wild, often squares himself up, and relies on his storm of punches. Cotto proved in the Mosley fight he can handle that. His loss to Margarito cannot be duplicated by Pacquiao because the Tiajuana Tornado is bigger than Pacman.

Everyone wants to see Mayweather-Pacquiao, but its tells you the difference between the two. Mayweather handpicks Marquez and stacks the deck in his favor in exchange for a ton of money and exposure for Marquez. Pacquiao is taking on a man who, when at the top of his game, might be the true top welterweight in the division.

Skill-wise, perhaps maybe we should think of Cotto as the favorite in this fight?

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Pac is a very gifted fighter in a lot of ways. He’s used his skills to grind out a career that started in poverty with little to no boxing intuition while his peers grew up in boxing gyms.

Thing is incredible fighters with incredibe gifts like Pac have come along before. Roberto Duran is one. He had gifts he used to conquer multiple divisions.

But again with Duran when he started pushing his luck and fighting at a weightrange he wasn’t comfortable at he was beaten althrough by very good fighters.

Pac is an incredible fighter but you can’t fight the dynamics of the human anatomy. A lot of what makes him good at lower weight divisions is almost certain to be degraded at 147 pounds which is probably the very highest weightclass he can ever fight at.

I’m a huge Pac fan but the more I think about this fight the more I can’t understand it.

Pac fighting DLH was something most of us thought was ridiculous but Pac fighting guys like Marg or Cotto at 145 is suicide. I don’t see how he’s going to win it and I wish I could be more optimistic but the reality in me doesn’t understand what is going on with this fight.

by MannyPacquiao on Sep 26, 2009 9:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Not necessarily saying Pac will win, but I do favor him against Cotto. The difference between Pac and a lot of other guys, is that Pac has big legs and carries what power he has better than most. 147 is probably his limit, but I think he’ll easily maintain his explosive movement at 140 – 147…and that spells trouble for anyone he faces at those weight classes. He’s a very tough guy to prepare for.

by JohnPaulFutbol on Sep 30, 2009 6:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Before the dela Hoya fight, a lot of people thought and asked why did Manny accepted or agreed to a challenge like this. Surely, a lot of boxing fans thought that this is just suicide because Pac is naturally smaller than DLH. The mere fact that he was a great fighter was easily discounted because you are comparing his size to somebody who has fought at the super middleweight division and his last fight was against Diaz at 135. After the fight when Pac won, most boxing fans focused on Oscar’s weaknesses and not on Manny’s strengths. again, discounting his ability to fight bigger opponents. I think the same is true to the Hatton fight. I believe Pacman has a great chance of winning this fight not only because he is a great boxer and fighter but also because he believes in his heart that he can win this fight. You have to believe. This is what the Filipino people do, in order to overcome the devastation brought about by the 2 deadly super typhoons. Believe! This is what Sugar Ray Leonard did whe he announced that he’s going back to the ring and fight Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

by cozmicfeelings on Oct 13, 2009 12:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs